Library Day in the Life – Day 3, 4, 5

This week has been so busy that I didn’t have time to write up my posts for the Library Day in the Life project since Wednesday this week. So here is the summary of what happened on my day 3, 4, 5 this week. People often think that being a librarian is a pretty undramatic job. But it may not be the case. I had pretty dramatic three days which even involved pulling an all nighter. (Ah, well, almost. Having four-hour sleep is tantamount to pulling an all nighter at my age I think.)

Wednesday

Morning

Catch up with Emails

A new printer set-up in the library site with IT. This one is going to allow students to send print jobs directly from their laptops. Another printer that is hooked up with library PCs are already in a working order.

Install Flash plug-in and Quicktime Player on each public access computers. Now that I put integrity management system on each PC last week, installing new program is more complicated. I have to reboot before and after change to turn off and on the integrity management system.

Afternoon

Get the news from the web design company that they will give me an access to files that comprise the library website. I requested this several months ago and the day that I am getting access to the files is right before the site going live. The company wants me to finish anything I will do on those files today. That is only a few hours to work. I plead and ask when they are “really” planning to move the site from the company’s server to the university’s server. I hear that I can work until Friday morning and then have to sign them off. Much better than by today at 5 pm.

Start looking at the codes. Why there are no comments? Spend more time to figure out where the files I need to change are located.

Figure that I will need to work all night Thursday. Get the permission to work from home Friday morning to push in as many web pages as possible to the company server before the site goes live.

More web work. Tired and head out home near 6 pm.

Thursday

9 am – 5 pm

Attend SEFLIN (Southeast Florida Library Information Network)’s “New Technologies: Libraries & Beyond” conference During the keynote address, emails notify me that I need some kind of job description for a work-study student I am planning to get. Emailing back and forth while listening to the kenote presentation. Then three more sessions to attend. The conference had sufficient amount of free coffee available. I was very happy with that.

Keynote Address:Library automation after Web 2.0: Integrating Social Networking Concepts into the Library Infrastructure Presented by: Marshall Breeding, Director for Innovative Technologies and Research for the Vanderbilt University

It was great spending time at a conference all day. But now there is work waiting for me. After dinner, I start moving the webpage files from work to my personal computer. Start working on adding more library pages. Each deparment was allowed to submit up to 6 pages. The library was no exception but we have + 50 pages more to go. I had a test site set up with most of the web pages ready. I start creating new web page files that would fit into the new template created by a web design company. The site and file structure are, in my opinion, not so optimal for those who will be maintaining and updating codes for a portion of the site.

I continue somewhat repetitive web work. The spell checker in Dreamweaver is a godsend. Still there are many files to go and the night is short. I start to realize that while I will be able to add as many webpages as I can during the given time, it would be very very difficult to drive to work tomorrow considering the sleep-deprived state I will be in tomorrow.

Friday

Morning

After three hours of sleep, I come back to my computer with a large cup of coffee. More coding, more coding. I am adding JQuery and some Javascript files. And more webpages. Now the library site will have 30-40 pages instead of the initial 6. Around 10 am, I check with the company. More content may come in but the deadline is not changed. I start uploading my files. But soon I hear back that other departments are going to submit more content by 5pm today.

So I get more time to work on webpages, which is nice but exhausting because I have been up very long without much sleep. I take a short break and get a permission to work from home for the rest of the day.

Afternoon

More web pages, more javascript files, and more coffee. I am missing some very important staff meeting today that will include some delicious cake. I contunue my work wishing there would be some left Monday. And of course, looking forward to the new updated site which I will be seeing Monday!